To My Credit, I Managed To Fail The PE Exam

[CorpuSpongiosum]

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I don't know how I managed to fail this test. God knows I hope it's because I suck at manipulation, which is a testament to the quality of doctor I will be.

For all I care, the AOA can suck my d!ck.

I usually am gracious and can admit that I have something to learn, but I honestly from the depths of my soul I do not believe that is the case on this test.

I did my best, was personable, had good differentials. Phuck them! I am really mad.

The fact that these *****s may have interfered in any way with my chances for my MD only residency application makes me want to murder one of these neck crackers.

I am furious. And find this test illegitimate, random and complete bull****.

I will never give a dime to my osteopathic medical school, the AOA, or the NBOME. I hope the air force one day accidentally bombs Conschohocken (Cock's-a-sucken), PA.

 

[Bandit]

dude, i am sooo sorry and trust me---that is exactly my biggest fear. I too did great thru out school and rotaions but fear failing that stupid exam because of the OMT

My friend at the hospital failed too and he got a 625 on step one and is applying to anesthesia!!

i dont know what to tell ya---that just plain sucks man. sorry

 

[FutureInternist]

I believe the report tells which part of the exam they thought you did not do well in. SOAP writing or "humanistic" skills. If it's humanistic then you have to make sure you do the 2 minuter review at the end, ask them if they have any Qs & always tell them to stop smoking etc.

The only other option is to ask them to re-grade it since you have nothing to lose.

Good Luck

 

[UCMDwannabe]

When did you take the test? How did you find your score?

 

[ROBINHO]

Out of curiosity.
How is the rewriting like?
Do you pay another application fee and do the whole Exams again???

 

[TOXOSIS]

Sorry to hear that :-( I'm pretty sure I'll be posting something very similar in 8-10 weeks when I get my score. I tried to be "humanistic" as possible, but they were not buying it... they were looking at me like "you fake P.O.S. get the F out of our city"... But for now, I will echo you and say I will NEVER donate sht to my medical school, the AOA or NBOME, EVER.

 

[Amy B]

Im sorry to hear you failed. Just some thoughts... did you come up with 5 good differentials? Did you have a good plan for treatment? Did you explain things to the SP in a good way? Did you wash hands after writing down your notes and before you examined the SP? Did you ask to untie their gowns and made sure to drape them? did you retie their gowns? These are the big things.....The differentials were a big part! I am sorry for you and i wish you all the best on the retake!!!!

 

[FM guy in KC]

They tell you that you only need to put down 3 differentials. Anything more is just extra. At least that is the way they explained it to us. . . but who knows. It probably depends on which doctor they mail it to.

 

[futuredo32]

I'm sorry you didn't pass. When our school had practice PE exams for us, one of the docs from our school who is involved with writing the cases and grading the exams said that when she was first grading exams, she was very picky about the differential diagnoses and plans and as she graded more and more exams, she was more lenient, which really doesn't help to determine competency in any objective manner. It sounds like a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry arbitrary way to grade these craptastic exams.

 

[TOXOSIS]

I also believe 3 differenials are good enough for grading purposes from what I heard from previous students who passed and the NBOME ... screw this test either way. By the way, rumor has it that the NBME or whoever administers the USMLE is getting rid of the CS portion of Step II... what will the NBOME do then??? I don't think they'll ever dump this cash cow they've created... ahhh it feels good to vent.

 

[Amy B]

Vent away my friend.....it helps

 

[aclayton]

my problem, as well as many others probably, is that there is no pass/fail cut-off. you take a class pass/fail there is a score that is required to pass (70-75%). we as students take this test without knowing what is needed to pass this test, which is a validity problem. they say, you have to pass the humanistic and biological sections, which they give you a few descriptions as to what falls under each category. ok, what is needed to pass, answer, pass the humanistic and biological sections; and the circle continues. if you can not set a pass/fail mark, and make it available to the test takers, questions will and should be ask about the this test. i was told by someone (will not mention because big brother is probably lurking), that an arbitrary 10% of test takers are given a fail in order to validate this test. this should make everyone furious, but we do not have the leverage to change this, or do we?

 

[1viking]

Passing is set at 75% for PE (from my Dean's office). The NBOME on their site talks about how you can perform well on one case and poorly on another, but still pass.

Also, the number 1 reason for failures is documentation problems. Meaning, you document something that you didn't do or wasn't said. I went into the exam knowing this, so, I was VERY cautious about this stuff. In fact, the pts use generic drug names, so, I documented acetaminophen instead of Tylenol. Stuff like that.

I spent 45 seconds before going into every encounter to write on my scratch sheet a ddx of 3 and a plan for each ddx. Then, I made a quick chart that helped me make certain I got all the history.

good luck with the retake.

 

[Amy B]

That is a good suggestion about taking time before you go into the room. I was always the last to go in. I read the chart and thought up possibilites and came up with a short list of questions I figured would be important. you cant get a differential if you dont ask the correct questions. I would take about 30 secs to clear my thoughts and focus on what I thought would be important and then I would go in. Everyone else went in immediatly, but I really think that few secs helped me to pass. Good luck!!!

 

[Bandit]

just took it yeterday. you know--how is one to feel after? I thought it was cake but if someone gets a bug up thier ass about something anything could happen.

oh--we also had a freakin fire drill during it! Honest to God--the building across the street burned massively the night before so they took the drill VERY seriously. so I guess we are getting graded out of 11 encounters instead of the usual 12

 

[marie337]

Sorry about your bad luck Corpus. I just took this beast today and I'm just hoping that I passed. It seems so arbitrary. My OMM sucks and I know it. I tried to fake my way through it, but who knows. I also am sure that I forgot to retie about half of the gowns. It just wasn't something that I could remember for whatever reason. I tried to be extra cautious and thorough about everything else, so hopefully I did okay. While the cases were pretty realistic, the timing definitely isn't. I don't think it is a very fair representation of what I can do when I'm put under a time crunch. It took me a few cases to really get into a rhythm, so the first couple were a little rough. I was trying to be too focused. I agree too with spending 30 seconds before you go in to gather your thoughts. It's worth the time.

 

[Femtochemistry]

Sorry about your bad luck Corpus. I just took this beast today and I'm just hoping that I passed. It seems so arbitrary. My OMM sucks and I know it. I tried to fake my way through it, but who knows. I also am sure that I forgot to retie about half of the gowns. It just wasn't something that I could remember for whatever reason. I tried to be extra cautious and thorough about everything else, so hopefully I did okay. While the cases were pretty realistic, the timing definitely isn't. I don't think it is a very fair representation of what I can do when I'm put under a time crunch. It took me a few cases to really get into a rhythm, so the first couple were a little rough. I was trying to be too focused. I agree too with spending 30 seconds before you go in to gather your thoughts. It's worth the time.

"realistic" as in FA and UW "realistic?"

 

[marie337]

"realistic" as in FA and UW "realistic?"

I just thought the patients did their jobs fairly well. The cases were fairly textbook. I just hated the time constraint, it stressed me out a little. But, I'm very highstrung anyways . It definitely does not represent how I usually work with my patients. I just hope that I didn't waste all of this money!

 

[Bandit]

our clinical coordinator said that the AOA got some bug up thier ass about people claiming it was such a money making joke that they arre making a very serious point of failing 10% of student regardless of their performance

 

[NJWxMan]

What school?

 

[TOXOSIS]

our clinical coordinator said that the AOA got some bug up thier ass about people claiming it was such a money making joke that they arre making a very serious point of failing 10% of student regardless of their performance

Failing 10% is another ~$400,000 into those deep pockets... they can use whatever excuse they want for failing students. It's all about those Benjamins imo. 👎

 

[aclayton]

the aoa and nbome are 2 separate "dictatoships" from what i understand. the aoa from reading what the aoa president said in a blog has no control over the nbome, which is interesting. the aoa president has blogs, which are interesting to read and he responds to most questions. the nbome doesn't have such interaction with students do they? for obvious reasons, its probably a good idea on their part in order to deflect any questions to employees that seem to not have the slightest insight to the workings of their organiztion (just the understanding i got from trying to talk to them). another question; do the allopathic students get generic scores from their cs exam, or do they have a more detailed breakdown of the exam?

 

[jdinovit]

How much OMT are you required to do on the PE? I only did OMT on a third of the patients in the PE and only diagnosed another third.

 

[TOXOSIS]

How much OMT are you required to do on the PE? I only did OMT on a third of the patients in the PE and only diagnosed another third.

That should be more than enough, although rumor has it that you should crack your knuckles before performing OMT in order to pass that portion 😉